Concept Northern: Workplace Needs Assessor Training Programme

Tuesday 27 August 2019

Last week, I had the pleasure of a little jaunt to Scotland to deliver a Workplace Needs Assessor Training Programme to the team at Concept Northern.

Whenever we deliver this training it reinforces for me the importance of having properly trained Workplace Needs Assessors in-house. This approach provides dyslexic employees with the opportunity to access well informed, fast, efficient and cost-effective support, that inevitably saves employers not only money, but it also embeds the support within the structure of the organisation making it a seamless process. There are an increasing number of organisations that BDA works with who take this approach and have certainly found it of great benefit.

Unfortunately, we hear all too often at the BDA, that for some the quality of such assessments is not always great. There is a need for this type of service to be within a quality framework and because of this the BDA developed a professional membership tier to ensure that those who carry the BDA Workplace Practitioner (BDA-WPP) acronym are not only trained but have signed up to a code of ethics and a commitment to CPD. This ensures that such professionals can provide a high level of service and those commissioning these services know that they are being delivered by a knowledgeable and accountable individual.

A Workplace Needs Assessor explores in detail with the individual the work environment, areas where they are experiencing particular challenges, discusses areas of strengths and makes recommendations for reasonable adjustments. They would also meet separately with the line manager to discuss the broader work context. Frequently such adjustments are of little if any cost but can make a big difference to the individual and their performance. *The average cost of reasonable adjustments is maximum £3,121, for many it is less, yet the savings can be upwards of £20k, taking into account increased productivity, reduced recruitment costs and retention of knowledge capital.

A small investment in training can have a massive impact on the culture of an organisation but also on the efficiency of that organisation.